Opening of Syrian Constitutional Committee in Geneva
Geir O. Pedersen (center), United Nations Special Envoy for Syria, speaks at the opening session of the Syrian Constitutional Committee in Geneva. At left is Ahmad Kuzbari, Co-Chair representing the Government of Syria, and at right is Hadi Al Bahra, Co-Chair representing the opposition. 30 October 2019 – Geneva, Switzerland
The United Nations has deemed the drafting of a new constitution for Syria a key stepping stone toward a political resolution of the decade-long civil war. In pursuit of this, the Syrian Constitutional Committee has been formed, a 150-member body made up of three groups: opposition representatives, Syrian regime representatives, and members of Syrian civil society. However, after five rounds of negotiation, the Constitutional Committee has yet to make any significant progress.
Committee negotiations are taking place in Geneva, far from the eye of everyday Syrians. This begs the question: what do Syrians think of the Constitutional Committee, and what do they want to see in their new constitution? What are their priority issues, and how much faith do they have that the Constitutional Committee will succeed?
To find out, The Day After conducted a survey of 2,966 Syrians between June and July 2020, polling those living inside the country and in the surrounding diaspora on their thoughts on about the subject. OPC contributed to a study analyzing this data, published in November 2020.
The survey responses are displayed below in the interactive dashboard. Data is displayed via various charts and can be filtered by gender, religion, ethnicity, educational level, and geographic location.
Through this tool, OPC seeks to give a more accurate picture of what Syrians want for their own country’s future. The current focus is very much on what the influential actors in the country are likely to agree upon, rather than what the average Syrian citizen desires.
To the see the interactive visualization, click here.
